1. Re: 386/486
- Posted by Hawke <mdeland at NWINFO.NET> Jul 05, 1998
- 436 views
Robert McDougal wrote: > However, unless I'm mistaken since my computer is > a 386 then it wouldn't have built in floating point > (unless I had the 387, but I don't.) > My understanding is that with the 486+ they have > built floating point > stuff built in. (Am I correct here? Anybody know?) ummmm no. a 386 uses the 387 to obtain FP calc. a 486 is (in essence) a pair of 386's piggybacked to allow a larger datapath. there are 2 core varieties of 486 chips: a 486SX and 486DX. the DX adds a FP unit to the 486, whereas the 486SX is sans FP for those that dont need it (or couldnt afford it when it first came out). So if you have a 486SX then you basically have a pair of 386. If you have a 486DX then you have a pair of 386 -and- a 387 (in essence...this is just an analogy guys) hope this clears it up? --Hawke'